Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1887-07-27

i
place and said, sFarewell, my honored
faithful, and beloved wife. The bond thai
| bound US is severed. Thou art in glory,
and am here on earth. We shall meet
again. Farewell ! Farewell % To lean on
a prop for fifty years, and then have ii
break under you There were only two
years difference between the death of my
father and mother. After my mothers
decease my father used to 90 around as
though looking for something; he would
often get up from one room without any
seeming reason and go to another room;
| and then he would take his cane and start
out, and some one would say, "Father,
where are you going?" and he would an
swer, 81 don't know exactly where 1 am
going" Always looking for something
Though he was a tender-hearted man,
never saw him cry but once, and that was
at the burial of my mother. After sixty
years living together it was hard to part.
And there are aged people to-day who are
feeling just such pang as that. I want to
tell them there IS perfect enchantment in
the promises of this Gospel, and I come to
them and offer them my arm, or I take
their arm and bring them to this Gospel
well. Sit down, father or mother, sit
down. See if there is anything at the well
for you. Come, David, the Psalmist, have
You anything encouraging to offer them
YES" says the Psalmist ''They shall
still bring forth fruit in old age, they shall
be tat and fourishing, to show that the
Lord is upright; He is my rock and there is
no unrighteousness in me-" Come, Isaiah,
have you anything to say out of your
prophecies for these people7 eyes" says
Isaiah, "Down to old age am with thee,
and to hoary hairs will carry -
Well, if the Lord is going to carry you, you
ought not to worry much about your fail
ing eyesight and failing limbs. You get
little worried for fear some time you will
come to want, do you? Your children and
grandchildren sometimes speak little
sharp at you because of your ailments
The Lord will not speak sharp. Do you
think you will come to want? Who do you
think the Lord is? Are His granaries
empty9 Will He feed the raven and the
rabbit and the lion in the desert, and forget
you? Why, naturalists tell us that the
porpoise will not forsake it's wounded and
sick mate. And do you suppose the Lord
of heaven and earth has not as much SYM
pathy as the fish of the sea? But you say !:
81 am so near worn out and am of no
use to God any more" I think the Lord
knows whether you are of any more use or
not; if you were of no more use He would
have taken you before this. Do you think
God has forgotten you because He has
taken care of you seventy or eighty yearsa
He thinks more of you to-day than He ever
did, because you think more of Him. May
the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob,
and Paul the aged, be your God forever!
But gather all the promises to-day in
group, and l ask the shepherds to drive
their floeks of lambs and Sheep up to the
sparkling supply. "Behold, happy is the
man whom God correcteth." s'Though he
cause grief, yet will He have compassion"
"Many are the Affections of the righteous,
but the Lord delivereth him out of them
all' "Weeping may endure for night,
but joy cometh in the morning" am de-
termined this morning that no one shall 20
out of this house uncontrolled. Yonder is
timid and shrinking soul who seems to
hide away from the consultations | am ut
tering, as child with sore head hides
away from the physician lest he touch the
wound too roughly, and the mother has to
go and compel the little patient to come out
and see the physician. So come to your
timid and shrinking soul to-day and COM
pei you to come out in the presence of the
Divine Physician. He will not hurt you
He has been healing wounds for many
years; and He will give you gentle and ON
nipotent nedicament. But people, when
they have trouble, so anywhere rather than
to God. DeQnincy took opium to get rid
of his troubles. Charles Lamb took to
punch. Theodore Hook took to something
stronger. Edwin Forrest took to theatri-
cal dissipation. And men have run all
around the earth, hoping in the quick tran
sit to get away from their misfortunes. 1t
has been a dead failure. There is only one
we'll that can slake the thirst of an afflicted
spirit, and that is the deep and inexhausti-
BILE we'll of the Gospel.